Breakthrough Israel-Hamas truce and hostages-prisoners exchange to start today

AFP | Gaza                                                     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A pause in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza will start this morning and an exchange of hostages and prisoners will follow hours later, mediator Qatar said, after nearly seven weeks of fighting.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian doctor said yesterday at least 27 people had been killed and 93 more injured in an Israeli strike on a United Nations school in Gaza. The strike hit a UN-run school where thousands of displaced Palestinians were sheltering in Jabalia, the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the doctor at a hospital in the camp said on condition of anonymity.

The breakthrough four-day truce facilitated by Qatar with help from Egypt and the United States had been due to take effect yesterday but was delayed after a last-minute hitch. Qatar said the pause would begin today at 7:00 am (0500 GMT, 8pm, Bahrain time) with the “first batch” of 13 civilian hostages - all women and children from the same families - being handed over around nine hours later.

Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails will also be released today, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said, adding a list of names had been approved, without saying how many.

The agreement entailed a “complete ceasefire with no attacks from the air or the ground” and the skies clear of drones to “allow for the hostage release to happen in a safe environment”, Ansari said. The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed the cessation of hostilities would start at 7:00 am under the deal that is also intended to provide aid to Gaza’s 2.4 million residents struggling to survive with shortages of food, water and fuel.

It said a total of 50 hostages - women and males aged 18 or under - will be freed, with three Palestinian prisoners to be released for each of them. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was in contact with the families of the hostages after receiving “a first list of names” of those due to be released. It did not specify who was on it. “We’ve already been on an emotional roller coaster for 47 days and today is no different,” said Eyal Kalderon, a cousin of Ofer Kalderon, who is among those held captive in Gaza.